fishinorhuntin

flyjake, I have been tying on a Griffin for many years and have had no issues. Right now I have the Griffin Odyssey Spider, you referenced above. I have changed the jaws to the cam jaw, which has made it much easier to put your hooks in the vice. Currently you can buy the vice to come with the cam jaws. I have tied hook sizes from 4/0 to 24. In my opinion it is a great vice, especially for a beginner due to the cost. I can't talk about the Peak vise, as I have never tied on one, but the Griffin is something I will continue to tie on, because the main reason is I simply can't justify spending more money for a true rotary vice that does the job! I also only tie for myself, family, and friends. No plans to tie commercially and if I did, I would have no reservation about tying with the Griffin. Good luck!

Rich, Received the flies today. Thanks for doing this swap! Nice set of flies and can't wait to use them. Maybe this weekend!

Mine will be going in the mail today. Sorry got side tracked over the last couple of weeks.

I am good with whatever the group agrees on!

richmce, No problem as I have a few in my fly box already and need to add some more so I am sitting here tying them up now. I will have to make several extras to get ready for the spring and throw a few extras in the shipment for you! 🙂

I am in, Basic Wooley Bugger with black body and red marabou tail with a red bead for head, size 2. This is the most productive Wooley bugger I have for Largemouth Bass! Should be fun! Been a couple years since I did a fly swap and ran a couple myself, but I am not traveling as much for work now!

It has been a while since I have been on here, but decided to get back on here. I have been using 2 different brands of the cheap fly lines for a couple years now and they are still working as they did when I first purchased them. I didn't get them off of Ebay but Amazon. They range from $10.00 to $15.00. The higher priced came with backing and a leader (took the leader off immediately and put my own on it). I primarily fish for Largemouth Bass and Saltwater (Stripers, red fish, flounder, etc) species and have caught many fish on these lines, upwards to 25 lbs. Never had an issue with casting any of them. Some come with welded loops, but most of the time I cut them off and nail knot a piece of 40lb leader to make a loop (not sure I trust the loops, but never tried them so can't vouch for those). The nice thing is that it isn't very expensive to replace them every couple of years! I was like you, I was tired of paying 100's of dollars on fly lines so I tried these and haven't turned back. I have floating, intermediate and full sinking tips in WT's 4-9 (yes I have that many fly rods, but I build them as a hobby). The brands I bought are Croch and MaxCatch. If you don't like them, you are not out a lot of money, but I think you will be happy with them. Tight Lines!!

I got mine today too! Great looking flies now I just need to use them.

OK Everyone! The flies went out this morning straight to a retreat in Arkansas/Texas on Oct 28th-30th. I sent J. Stockard another thank you and pictures of the flies. Since they were not sent to the "Casting for Recovery" corporate office in Vermont, I also sent them the pictures and a thank you for what they do. Attached is the picture I took with all the flies in the boxes. Two of the flies wouldn't fit in the boxes so I placed them in a separate box and sent them that way. They are the two in front of the fly boxes in the picture. I want to personally thank everyone for doing this swap (donation) as this is the first one I have hosted. Everything was very smooth and all flies got here right on time. As I was wrting this message, I just received an email from Wendy at the Casting for Recovery (posted below) "Hi Rob, OMG!!! These flies are gorgeous!!! We are so grateful that you are thinking of us and the women we serve. With the inaugural SE Regional Retreat there are so many parts that need to be organized. Susan was so happy to hear that flies wouldn't be something that needed to be obtained for the women. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! Best, Wendy"

I already bought him some fly tying tools to get started. I was talking to my wife last night and told her we probably need to buy him some materials so he can tie what he wants to. Of course, when you buy hackles and other things there is so much material that it would take a life time for me to use it all. I think I may go through my stuff and do some splitting of materials so he has some materials. He was up late last night tying up a bunch of flies. I had to tell him to get to bed about midnight! LOL I had no doubt he would get hooked on fly fishing and tying since he is an avid outdoor sportsman. We were hunting Friday morning and fishing Friday evening. Like you said, I am glad he is into these things instead of what some of our youth are into these days.

He tied up a flying ant and some beetles and caught this little fish today on one of his beetles. I can't get him to smile for any picture I take, but believe me he is having fun. He came home and tied some more up. I am going to have to hide my fly tying materials or he may use them all! LOL

I know this was back in August when I said I was going to take my son out and teach him how to fly fish, well we finally made it out to fish. HE IS HOOKED!! He was able to catch a couple fish and had a blast. They were some small sunfish, but at least he caught something! He did hook into about a 1 pound bass, but got it to the boat and it got off. This afternoon we sat down and had him tie up some small beetle flies (same thing he caught those fish on) and he is hooked tying flies now too! We took them fishing and neither one of us caught anything, but he is determined to catch a fish on a fly he tied himself. He is sitting here now trying to tie a bunch of beetles and wants to go fishing again tomorrow. I also showed him how to tie up some wooly buggers/worms and is planning on tying some of those too! I want to thank everyone for the suggestions they provided. I think I have created a monster. He loves it!

Yes they did provide the fly boxes. I have already thanked them several times and promised I would send them pictures of the flies in the boxes as soon as I get them done. I am going try and get this all done and sent to Casting for Recovery tomorrow or Friday.

I already had my camera out so I took this real quick...Great set of flies!

I was able to get the individual pictures done. They aren't the best photos, but this is the first time I have taken pictures of flies! I am going to take some pictures with the flies in the boxes before they are sent and post them too, hopefully later this evening or tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone who participated!